Calling all residents of Okehampton, past and present! Do you have any stories or memories about places in the town that you’d like to share? If so, Wren Music would love to hear from you for an exciting new folk song trail in the town.
The Okehampton Folk Trail – to be opened in July this year – will feature several locations linked to a website containing folk songs that help bring the town’s social history to life.
The starting point for the project is to gather stories, and two memory café events are being held at Wren’s HQ at Ebenezer Hall in North Street: a coffee morning on Wednesday 22 March, 10.30am to 12 noon, and afternoon tea on Wednesday 29 March, 2.30pm to 4pm. The events are being hosted by Wren Music Creative Director, Marilyn Tucker, and project volunteer, Ruth Cartlidge.
Marilyn said: “We really want the community to own this project, and we’d love as many people as possible to come along to our memory cafés to talk about which places in Okehampton are special for them.
“We want to hear about some of the hidden histories of the town, as well as the more obvious public places. From these stories we’ll be able to find out which locations are significant and research the history of those places a bit more.”
The next phase of the project will be to sift through Wren Music’s huge song archive to choose songs to go with the stories. Although the planning process is still very much in its early days, the folk trail is expected to have 8-10 songs which the Wren Music team will record at Ebenezer Hall.
A printed and online leaflet of the Okehampton Folk Trail is planned, to make it as accessible as possible.
If you have any memories to share but can’t make the memory cafes, you can ring Marilyn at Wren Music on 01837 53754.
The project is kindly supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
